Monday, September 15, 2014

As I joke in the video, this little Q
& A should serve as irrefutable proof that I’ve made the right decision to
stay off camera. Talking while being filmed isn’t that hard; it’s the part
about making sense that’s the real challenge.

And if you’re thinking I took the easy
way out here, just sitting around, talking to the camera, think again. These
things are like a hundred times harder than a regular recipe video, so you’ll
have to pardon all the questionable editing techniques. Despite the challenges,
I really did enjoy finally getting to solve some of these mysteries for you.

By the way, if I didn’t happen to get
to your question in this video, I will be doing the same thing for video 2,000,
so hold that thought. A heartfelt thank
you for all the support you gave during the first 1,000, and we’re on to the
next one. Enjoy!

105 comments:

Watching (and rewatching) you cook and jotting down my own notes is exactly what I do, and I've learned a lot from you this way. So a heartfelt thank you for all the videos! And congratulations on the milestone. :)

I've never really thought about it until now, but your videos have definitely made me a better cook. I don't exactly take notes (I think my feelings on writing\keeping notes are similar to your feelings on typing), but I definitely tend to take your recipes and adapt them to my own tastes. I'm also way more confident now compared to when I first started cooking for myself, and am much more likely to just go to the store and throw a bunch of stuff together that I'm pretty sure will work.

So in short, thanks for all the videos so far. It's been awesome, and I look forwards to the next thousand!

Congratulations to Chef John on the most down-to-earth Food Blog ever! You have served as an inspiration to me, and certainly thousands of other 'wishers' out here. I hope you can blog as long as you cayenne.

Chef John, thank you for getting me back into cooking. I remember how I came across your tutorial on how to make the twice baked potato and instantly fell in love with your channel/blog. Since then I've added a few more pounds and better cooking skills. I've learned to make these recipes as my own and even started to make my own cookbook. I find comfort in cooking and eating great food and I owe it all to you. Thank you!

Congratulations on 1000, I'm up for 1000 more. I've learned much from you, thank you. Every recipe I've tried of yours turns out fantastic. We love your inspiration and teaching. By we I mean my husband and I, after all, he reaps the benefits big time.

Congratulations on your 1000th video and a sincere thank you for the work that you've done. It is because of your blog that I have rediscovered my passion for cooking that I had at a young age. I've lost count of the number of recipes that I've made solely due to your videos.

I feel the love Chef John. I can't thank you enough for how much you've tonight me over the years. Ironically I was doing a Julia Child's search and came across you're chicken for Julia post and I have been watching ever since. Best of luck in the future! Please keep posting, best food blog on the web!

This was awesome! Please never change.I just wanted to know, if I start a foodblog where I basically copy all your recipes to my native language, would you sue me (no worries I wont actually do this)? How do you go about recipe-copyright and intellectual property? Really hope to hear that question answered in the 2,000th video :)

Loved this video Chef John. Loved, loved seeing your kitchen. Feels good to put a face to the voice in the videos. The format you film all your videos in may have come from necessity because of lack of equipment, but it turned into a wonderful way to teach people to cook. Watching the food up close is probably the best teacher there is. I look forward to your next 1000 videos.

That was a great video. Cant wait for the next 1000 I've made at lease 200 of your recipes they all turned out great friends and family think I'm a great chef but I always tell them were I found this and were to go. They use your blog now as much as I do a big Thx for all you do.

AH-mazing! SO up for 1000 more!And while we love your style of filming, you certainly have a face that belongs in front of the camera...very handsome! Thank you so much for all the wonderful techniques and recipes!

Loved your 1000th video, Chef. And you're right. While the "watch me stir" blogs can be entertaining and informative, Food Wishes alone has made me a better cook. Thank you very much, and here's to the next 1,000!

Congrats on video 1,000, Chef John! Whenever I'm looking for a recipe, Foodwishes is always my first stop. I've made enough of your recipes that my cooking mantra has become "Chef John never steers you wrong." Thanks for the inspiration, for keeping things simple and down to earth, and for making me laugh. Here's to video 2,000 in a few years!

I found your site a few years ago and look forward to viewing your videos every week. I was a fair / decent cook before, but I've learned a whole lot more watching you. I love that you make the video's about the food and techniques rather than about you (Not that there's anything wrong with that)The bits of humor injected make them fun to watch as well. Anyway, thanks for all you do and I look forward to gaining more experience through your videos.

My wife and I have been utilizing your video blog since we started dating back in 2007. At the time I was pretty new in my career in the military. Since then we have lived all over the world, visited more countries than I can count on my fingers and toes. Our first recipe of yours that we made was the Black Pepper Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Black Cherry Reduction. Since then we always seem to find our way back to your page when we want something new to try, or to do something again, as in todays instance I am here to make a Carrot cake. Our friends think that both my wife and I are great natural cooks, I just tell them that we have a great teacher. So I want to tell you, from the both of us no matter where we are in the world, Thank you! Keep doing what your doing!

Great video Chef John and great idea for #1,000 - I've wondered about these questions myself but I need not wonder anymore. Keep up the great blog and we'll be watching...I love your recipes and style of cooking and talking through what you're doing. Here's to a few 1000 more videos to come....

For the past two months I have made one of your recipes everyday. I have yet to try one that hasn't been absolutely delicious. You are a hero in my house. I have learned so much from you & you've made cooking fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you chef!!!!

Thanks for all the videos Chef John and congratulations on video 1000. The videos are easy to watch and have greatly expanded my kitchen skills starting with "almost but not quite blackened pork chops".

Thank YOU Chef for giving us the opportunity to learn to cook. And for sharing your amazing recipes with us. They have renewed my drive to cook, and to create in the kitchen. Here's to the next 1000! Off to help you double dip some more as I make Cassoulet! Wish me luck!

Dear Chef John, The comments above have expressed the many ingredients that all come together to make YOU our FAVORITE online CHEF! All I can add is my congratulations on this milestone and my heartfelt thanks! <3 ~Toshiko

Chef John-I love you with the heat of a 1000 suns (or gas stove tops) hope that doesn't creep you out. Thank you so much for teaching me how to cook. I look forward to being inspired each week with your blog.

I like that pig picture. I wish we'd seen it up close. And it's absolutely ethical for you to double dip on ads. You're not charging us anything for this instruction. People forget how amazing it is to be living in 2014 when we can take cooking classes from home and pay nothing but a couple of page clicks. I'm learning so much from you. Here's to a thousand more.

Congratulations on 1000 videos!! You're videos are not just instructional, they are highly entertaining! You helped me discover I have a true love for cooking. Not only that, but my oldest son got in the kitchen with me and learned to cook via your videos - Due to this, I felt confident he would not starve when he left for College. He now calls and asks if I have seen your latest video. So a sincere thank you!!

I have learned much from you, good sir. Congratulations on the first 1000 videos. You have made the kitchen an awesome place to experiment on stuff. You make me aspire to create better food than I thought I could. Thank you!

After 30 plus years of marriage I want to thank you for getting my husband in the kitchen. I love to cook but do appreciate a night off ever now and then. After watching your video and laughing along the way, he now believes he can learn to cook. Thanks!

Thanks Chef! One of the most memorable things I've learned from you is that other TV chefs and cookbook authors have no idea how hot medium-high is and no idea how big 1/4" is. I noticed in some of your early videos (been watching for a while) the amount of flame on your burner when you would let the shot linger for a second after removing a pan. That helped me immensely to actually see how much heat you were using. So many chefs say medium-high and then you finally realize that the amount of heat they're using is 3/10. Thanks again. Here's to another 1,000 videos.

Chef John focuses on the food, and all you see of him (in his cooking videos) are his hands. I like Chef John because (I think) we have a compatible philosophy to cooking… and by extension, Life. These are:

Top Ten Life Lessons I gleaned from or that were validated by Chef John (of Food Wishes).

10 Focus on the Essential. Other video food bloggers have a wide shot of the chef talking with brief cuts to the food, preparation area, frying pan occasionally. Chef John keeps the focus on the food and the preparation process. That’s why we love him. He’s not a egotistical narcissist (compared to say, Stephen Colbert).

9 Perfectionists have no place in the kitchen. Or Life. At least not in my life. Chef John has said it several times. If you are a perfectionist, you shouldn’t be in the kitchen. Like the kitchen, life is never perfect. Things never turn out EXACTLY like you planned. Deal.

8 Go with the flow. Adapt. Cooking is the art of making your mistakes taste GREAT. Or come up with a great new recipe. Which brings us to,

7 Recipes are just general guidelines, not rules. YOU decide how much cayenne to put into that casserole. Speaking of which,

6 You are the master of your kitchen/life. You decide what to put into it, and how much. (And you should always, ALWAYS put cayenne/chillis/spices. See lesson 4.)

5 THEN again, there are times when you need to follow rules. So sometimes, there is no “salt to taste” and you need to put in EXACTLY 1 teaspoon of salt (or whatever). The secret to life, the universe and everything (including the kitchen/kitchen sink) is knowing when you must follow the rules EXACTLY, and when you can bend them without causing a rift in the Space/Time continuum.

4 You should always put some cayenne in your food/life (except when you shouldn’t). What’s life without some heat, some passion?

3 Great cooks are INCAPABLE of following recipes exactly. Similarly, great people are unwilling to be bound by rules, by convention, by tradition. There is a difference between a cook and someone who can follow a recipe.

2 Everyone should knead dough at least once in their life. (No, not “need dough”, although that will happen too).

I always sit down, watched your videos, taken notes, written "my own recipe" and then went and made it.

Surprisingly enough, following your method my recipes have come out looking closer to the promised outcome than any other recipe website out there. Through observation and repetition, my cooking skills have improved considerably in the last year or so I've been following your blog.

I rarely take the time to write, but I read your blog several times a week, and it's the best out there. Thank you very much, you've improved my life and tummy more than you can imagine. Keep up the good work.

Chef John, I really enjoyed this video. It has been a few years since I started watching your video recipes. And I have learned so much about cooking from you. Thank you very much for all the delicious recipes and all the good memories that came along with them.

Wow! 1000 videos already? Thank you so much for all your funny and insightful cooking videos. Foodwishes is where I learned how to cook and I'm ever thankful to you. Btw, thanks for the kitchen tour - I enjoyed that part of the video most of all! May I know the brand of stove you have (for future kitchen remodeling reference)?

a) el lobo is not CJb) do not ever loose your loopy/quirky/fantasticaly interesting sense of humourc) you missed the opportunity for a family hug especially with that ever-supportive partnerd)passion is really our mission and you obviously have yours and have inspired many of us to ours .... thank you, thank youtlawno whoa, first 46.7

Wow Michele Bachmann! I'm so sorry I'm living in MN! But I LOVE your videos for precisely the reason you mentioned, make my own. Yes, I do. I don't like pork, so I omit that on a regular basis. Now I need a recipe that uses lots of roma tomatoes. Have one? I love your corny humor too, by the way.

Words cannot express how much you've changed my life. Your blog is by far the best food show/course in media. I have always hated the food network because it was always about the celebrity rather than the technique. I first started to really learn how to cook back in 2007. A chef friend of mine taught me basics and put me on the path. However, when I found your blog back in 2008 it was like a bolt lightening. You brought me to an entirely different level of confidence and skill. For years now, I've been cooking on an almost nightly basis, constantly trying new recipes and even creating my own. I even have been hosting 20+ person dinner parties with nothing but raves.

I owe my true love of cooking and new found popularity to you. Please don't ever stop!!!

Cheers,Bret

PSBy the way, the format is PERFECT for learning. Looking at some pompous ass on Food Network is pointless. Although I do like Giadia ;-)

Best food blogger. Ever. I've been watching for years and have learned countless techniques that have definitely made me a better cook. I always enjoy your videos and recipes, but most importantly, I hope you enjoy doing it as well. To 1000 more!

On your last question I really agree with you and that is exactly what i do when I cook. I get all my ingredients turn on my iPad and get cooking. I made so many of your receipts. My kids love the carrot cake.

Been watching you, - and when I say "you" I mean your food :-) - for 4 years now. Yes, I've learned a lot of techniques which have made me a more powerful and creative chef, and I've learned cool foodie things I never knew. Oh yeah, and I've made some awesome food that friends and family have enjoyed. Always appreciate the humor and candor in your videos, chef! And congrats for your success!

The original video that got me to your site was video #500 - carving an apple into a swan!

Hi. I am new to foodwishes and I enjoy it very much. I am glad you made that video because I thought you were a voice over not the actual chef. I am glad you put a face to the voice. I have tried the Irish soda bread and hope to try many more. I like the format of the videos because I get to actually see what you are doing instead of trying to understand the directions on my own. You are on my bookmark so I can quickly refer to your page. Thank you!

Hello, Love your blog and videos and totally understand the "make money" aspect. I'm surprised you don't take that one step further and include buying links for the items you are using in a video. Would love to know what kitchen utensils you have found to be of quality, that you utilize every day? Thanks again for a wonderful resource.